Mets invite 50 Cent back for 1st-pitch redemption

Nearly four years removed from throwing out an unforgettably embarrassing ceremonial first pitch at Citi Field, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson was convinced he would never live it down, lamenting just last week that the shame is "never going away."

The New York Mets want to give the rapper/actor a shot at redemption, though, and on Thursday cordially invited Jackson back to Queens for another crack at it in 2018.

For the uninitiated, this is how Jackson fared when tasked with throwing out the first pitch on May 27, 2014.

Hopefully, this time around, Jackson will be able to keep his nerves in check.

"I'm like, this is what happens when the fanfare and the energy of the people is involved and you start trying to get fancy and try to throw the ball harder than you have to," Jackson explained to Newsday's Neil Best. "It just was the worst pitch ever ... I had pitched before. I rehearsed. I practiced. I threw the ball a little bit.

"I was throwing like, 'Oh, man, I'm about to throw a strike, a hundred miles an hour.' But that (expletive) damn near killed a cameraman!"